Public inquiry campaigners secure cash for second water test round
Corby Town Council last night agreed to donate £4,000 to help locals and a national charity retest the town’s freshwaters for heavy metal pollution
By Sarah Ward
Campaigners fighting for a public inquiry about Corby’s toxic past have secured a substantial donation from the town’s council for a second round of water testing.
At last night’s finance committee meeting the authority decided to give £4,000 towards the £8,000 cost of a second round of summer testing to complement the winter testing in November, which discovered some heavy metal pollution hotspots in freshwaters linked to the reclamation of steelworks.
Fifteen years ago a group of families won compensation from the former Corby Borough Council after claiming their children’s birth defects were caused by the mismanaged clean up of toxic waste sites in the town in the 1980s and 1990s, that had been polluted by the town’s former steelworks. After the Netflix drama Toxic Town aired last year, some families from the original court case have joined with new families who fear their health problems can be attributed to the historic toxic waste.
It has come to light in recent months that not all the contaminated soil waste was deposited in Deene Quarry (now the town’s Rockingham Speedway site) as it should have been and in the mid 1990s some of it was instead transported by contractor Noone and McGowan and used in the foundations of buildings on the Willowbrook industrial estate and also over at Kettering’s leisure quarter near the old Odeon cinema.
This had led to new fears that the toxic pollution could be more widespread than originally thought.
Two months ago the Labour run-town council had backed a motion calling for more water testing and last night Lib Dem councillor Chris Stanbra proposed the authority give the sum to help the second round of testing go ahead. The second round is being carried out for scientific purposes and to strengthen the results of the first round.
Lead campaigner Tracey Taylor, who worked close to the reclamation site and whose newborn daughter Shelby-Anne died thirty years ago this month, had applied to the authority for the donation.
She told the council last night:
“The first tests showed there are heavy chemicals in hotspots and we have also come across a document from Gretton Parish Council which shows that the historic toxic waste is being pushed out of the ground and that is what has been going onto Gretton Brook Road.
“We just feel now we need to go ahead and do some more water testing because there are so many people that are worried about what is going into the waterways.”
Cllr Stanbra said:
“From my perspective I think it is important that the concerns that are out there are either confirmed or evidence is produced to allay those concerns, because at the moment were are in a bit of a limbo situation where people do not know either way and that has got to be unsettling.”
North Northamptonshire Council has responsibility for the town’s public health, as well as ensuring contaiminated land is managed and has the permit for the Deene Quarry site where the toxic waste was deposited.
The Environment Agency is responsible for ensuring the waterways are clean.
Leader of Corby Town Council Simon Rielly asked if the campaigners were working in partnership with NNC and the EA and Tracey Taylor said the organisations had not responded to the campaigners and they felt they had been ‘pushed aside.”
Cllr Stanbra said:
“It is really important that the Environment Agency and North Northamptonshire Council, as the two authorities with the responsibility are not coming back to you, neither organisation shows themselves in a good light. It would be really good if this organisation was important and showed some leadership and those other two organisations what it is they could be doing.”
Cllr Rielly said:
“We welcome the testing. I think it is a positive step forward. We have a greener and cleaner agenda coming from Corby Town Council so protecting our local waterways is high on our priority.
“However it must be done responsibly, not for political point scoring, we don’t want to be going against NNC and the EA. Testing should include water flowing into Corby and we should be encouraging our neighbour parishes to contribute as well.”
After independent environmental charity Earthwatch Europe published its results in January, the EA welcomed the testing, but has not committed to carrying out any additional testing of its own.
NNC committed to review its contaminated land data, but has not as yet shared an update.
After a call from a group of families who claim childhood cancer rates are higher in Corby, the authority commissioned a health survey using national data records.
However the data analysis led by the council’s director of public health Jane Bethea found there was not an increased childhood cancer rate in the town.
Collin’s solicitors, which won the 2009 legal action against Corby Borough Council, is involved in fighting for the public inquiry. It says only an independent investigation can get to the bottom of whether the toxic waste clean up is still having an impact on the town’s health today.
